[SOLVED] External Storage for Video Editing

[PeppermintFangs]

Hi all!

My question is two-fold...
1: I'm trying to find the cheapest way to store my raw editing footage (I'm expecting to have 10TB of footage, give or take) in an external enclosure. It seems that RAID arrays are quite expensive and too complicated for what I'm looking to do. Can I use an external hard drive docking station like this one to connect my hard drives and then put them into a RAID configuration in Windows? From my point of view, this seems like a great way to have a large amount of storage with some redundancy. Really, what I'm asking is: are there any glaring downsides or problems with this setup?
2: What is a NAS hard drive and do I need it for this setup? In other words, can I just buy a standard, high capacity HDD?

Thank you in advance!

Best Regards,
Erin Joan

 

[USAFRet]

RAID itself without dedicated hardware is the glaring downside.

What is your budget for this, and how much actual drive space do you need?

 

[PeppermintFangs]

RAID itself without dedicated hardware is the glaring downside.

What is your budget for this, and how much actual drive space do you need?

I would like to keep everything below $500. As of now, I'm expecting to have 10TB or more of footage.

 

[kanewolf]

I would like to keep everything below $500. As of now, I'm expecting to have 10TB or more of footage.

A bare 12TB drive is $300+ Two of those, to have two independent (NOT RAID) copies is $600+ -- I don't think you can reasonably expect 10TB of storage with any security for your budget.

 

[USAFRet]

2 bay Synology NAS, $170
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076G6YKWZ

2x 6TB Seagate IronWolf, $180 ea
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-Internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B07BDV5HGF


Later, add an 8TB or larger USB drive for actual backups.
8TB Seagate External HDD, $145
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Desktop-External-Hard-Drive/dp/B07CQJBSQL

 

[kanewolf]

@USAFRet solution with a NAS is one option. The downside is that you are limited by ethernet speeds. So max of about 100MB/s read/write.